Wink Wink

Now that E uses the potty, we are forced to accept that she will be up during the night to do her business. We can no longer tuck her in "for the night" and expect her to stay there. The problem we've had during the last few weeks is that she leaves her bed immediately after we close the door, and follows us into the living room. Then she will look at us with kind of a sad, apologetic face and say, "I need to ask a question. I gotta go to da potty."

We are trying not to discourage her at this point, because there is the off chance that she may actually have to go. So we walk her down to the bathroom, sit her down, wipe, and back to bed. It seems that this freedom has opened up a new door for her, and she will often try to wander back 3 or 4 more times before settling down.

I had heard of a technique that uses sort of a bribe in reverse...and I'm actually trying it. I put 3 candy Kisses on the counter and told her that those were her treats for tomorrow (yes, we've graduated from M&M's to a larger, messier candy). Then I told her that if she got out of bed again (not including ACTUAL potty trips), I would put one of the Kisses back in the jar. "So I'll only get two?" Great...she understood. Last night, we only had to put one Kiss back, and there was no crying or flailing on the floor. I don't know if you can count candy deprivation as a "natural consequence" of getting out of bed too many times, but hey. We're desperate.